


raise hell

by holyhands



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Falling In Love, M/M, Minor Violence, Survival, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, established tenyong, jeno becomes everyone's little brother lol, vixx also makes an appearance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-09-21 18:05:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17048033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holyhands/pseuds/holyhands
Summary: “Don’t you miss the action at all? The thrill of fighting off raiders? Killing a pack of creeps just because we can?”“If not doing those things means we’re guaranteed to live another day, then not particularly.”





	1. the beginning

**Author's Note:**

> this all started with me asking myself what jungwoo would look like beating the shit out of some zombies with a baseball bat – oops!!! only canon age is jeno, everyone else is kind of a mixed bag of older and younger lol
> 
> i’m not exactly known for timely updates so we’ll see how this goes
> 
> DISCLAIMER!!! there is some gory imagery and violence in this fic, but not enough to really put a big ol' archive warning on it, so if that's not your thing, proceed with caution!

“Jungwoo, what do you see?”

Jungwoo peers through his binoculars, spotting a group of them off in the distance. “Ten of ‘em, about five miles out still. We should move later tonight if you don’t want to fight them off.”

“Yeah, let’s avoid them if we can.” Yukhei can travel without issue, but he doesn’t have the energy in him to ward off a pack of creeps tonight. “We should go back to that old campsite we were at a couple months ago. Y’know, the one by the old factory just north of here? The hunting was really good there.” Yukhei reaches a hand up to help Jungwoo down from his lookout perch, and Jungwoo doesn’t let go even when he’s safely back on the ground.

“Good idea. We’re running too low on food.”

They walk hand in hand back to their campsite in silence, listening to the sounds of the budding evening. The birds still sing, the animals still scurry across the empty streets, but the sound of the nearby city has gone quiet. The city central has been quiet for almost two years now, completely devoid of human life. Yukhei misses the hustle and bustle of it often, and he finds himself wishing things would just go back to the way they were.

When they get back to their campsite, a long-abandoned house at the end of a cul-de-sac in what used to be an upper class suburb, Yukhei gets to work on packing up their sleeping area while Jungwoo puts away the cooking supplies, singing to himself as he works. It’s a melody he sings often, and it always has a way of relaxing Yukhei more than anything else can. Really, they don’t have much to pack up, what with it being just the two of them; it takes all of twenty minutes to load everything up into their backpacks. In the beginning, both of them were so averse to travelling at night, relying religiously on their flashlights, but they’ve long since stopped caring. That, and they ran out of batteries eventually, so getting intimately familiar with the dark was their only option.

Yukhei thinks they’ve adapted well to their unfortunate situation. It’s taken every bit of the two years since everything went to shit to figure it all out, but now that he and Jungwoo have a survival pattern set (and much more practice with killing the creeps and avoiding raiders), they get along just fine. Yukhei knows how to hunt for food, Jungwoo knows how to cook it. Jungwoo kills with a sharpened axe, Yukhei works better with a baseball bat. Jungwoo knows how to soothe Yukhei’s anxiety attacks, Yukhei knows how to bring Jungwoo down from his nightmares. Yukhei supposes they’re better suited than most pairs for survival. Camps of survivors usually consist of people who met at random, but Jungwoo and Yukhei had been best friends for over a decade when the epidemic broke out. There’s no one else Yukhei would trust to have his back. He and Jungwoo are in this together.

“I feel like I’ve been overthinking things lately,” Yukhei muses as they make their way down the street. “Maybe I’m even over-analyzing my own thoughts. There hasn’t been much activity in our area lately, and I think the silence is making me a little stir crazy.”

Jungwoo smiles softly, leaning over to press a kiss to Yukhei’s cheek. “That’s because we’re doing a good job staying out of trouble.”

“But don’t you miss the action at all? The thrill of fighting off raiders? Killing a pack of creeps just because we can?”

“If not doing those things means we’re guaranteed to live another day, then not particularly.” With a grimace, Jungwoo squeezes Yukhei’s hand and looks off into the distance, thoughtful. “It has gotten quiet, though. You’re right about that, at least.”

Their constant travelling gives Yukhei a lot of time to think, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. He has a tendency to dwell on the bad things, and Jungwoo knows it, so he fills the silence with chatter about their good times together while Yukhei focuses on not tripping over a crack in the sidewalk or something like that. Even so, Jungwoo goes on and on to the point where Yukhei starts to zone out.

  
  
  


Two years ago, Yukhei and Jungwoo were working on their masters’ degrees together. They’d been friends since the first day of middle school after they both joined the school’s volleyball team, and they were inseparable from the start. Their mothers joked that they shared a brain growing up. They finished each other’s sentences, they had sleepovers every weekend. They were even each other’s first kiss (though they both agreed it was weird and should never be spoken about again). Going to the same university just made the most sense.

Once the two of them get back from break, Yukhei notices a change in the energy on campus. The common areas are almost completely empty, and some of the students they do come across seem… off. Something about them seems lifeless, as if their souls have been completely sapped of color.

They’re been walking home from class the second day after break when a girl from one of Jungwoo’s lectures approaches them, crying. “Guys, what the _fuck_ happened to Professor Lee?”

Baffled, Yukhei scrambles to find his pack of tissues in his backpack, trying to comfort her at the same time. “Seulgi, what happened?” He passes a tissue over to her and pats her gently on the back as she wipes away her tears. 

“He fucking bit me!” Seulgi pulls up her sleeve to reveal a deep bite mark in her forearm. It’s bizarre enough that someone bit her hard enough to pierce the skin, but what’s worse is that the flesh around the bite looks like it’s rotting away. It’s an angry shade of red, and it’s actively oozing a nasty black pus, and god, the smell is putrid.  Yukhei nearly screams, and he feels Jungwoo jump back about ten feet next to him. Running all the potential causes through his head, he can come up with only one explanation. An outbreak.

This isn’t happening, this can’t be happening. Things like this can only happen in fiction, he thinks, there’s no way that zombies could be real. And yet, he thinks the evidence is standing right of in front of him. Maybe he’s overreacting? That has to be it.

And yet, the skin around the bite seems to be withering away in front of him as the infection spreads. It’s all the explanation Yukhei needs.

He doesn’t have more time to process what’s happening because Jungwoo has his arm in a vice grip and drags him towards the campus parking lot. “Yukhei,” he says as he speeds up to a run, “we have a lot to do and we don’t have much time to do it.” Jungwoo pulls his car keys out of his backpack, hopping into the driver’s seat and starting it up. “You pick where we go first –– sporting goods or outdoor supply store?”

They hit up the local outdoor store first. It looks a bit busier than it would normally be on a normal Tuesday, but it seems he and Jungwoo are the only ones in any hurry. They blow an obscene amount of money on enough camping supplies to last them what Yukhei can only imagine to be about ten years. He thinks the amount of matches they bought alone will take up the whole large compartment of his new backpack. The cashier gives them both a strange look when she rings up the two long-handled axes Jungwoo’s put on the counter, but she doesn’t comment.

Next up is the sporting goods store. Jungwoo throws athletic shirts and pants in the cart with reckless abandon, along with two pairs of shoes for each of them. Talking as he goes, Jungwoo explains why the hell he’s pulled so much stuff for them. “One of these days, we’re going to come across other people who made it out and want to make an alliance, and we’ll have to share what we have. I don’t want us to give up something we might need just for the sake of hospitality. We come first.”

“But Jungwoo,” Yukhei asks, “how can you be so sure this is really an outbreak?”

With a withering glance, Jungwoo tosses a couple baseball bats into the cart. “I’m studying to be a doctor, and both my parents were doctors, Yukhei. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was actively spreading in front of my eyes. There’s no other explanation.”

Yukhei wants to argue, wants to disagree, but in his heart of hearts, he knows Jungwoo is right. And even if he’s wrong, then he and Yukhei will be able to go camping every summer until they die.

As they go through their purchases in the trunk of Jungwoo’s beat up old SUV, ripping tags off clothing and packing their backpacks, Yukhei whispers, “What do we do, Jungwoo? How do we make it through this?”

“We survive.” Jungwoo doesn’t look up from his task, but Yukhei can tell his mind is elsewhere. “We have no other choice, honey. It’s either that or die a horrible, painful death. So we survive.”

As they drive as far away from the city as they can get, Yukhei watches as it fades out in the side mirror and wonders what his new normal might look like. If there’s one thing he’s certain of, he and Jungwoo can never go back to the way things were.  
  


 

His memories cloud together, and Jeno can’t really tell which ones are based in reality. He’s got a killer headache, and when he touches a hand to the side of his head, his fingers come away bloody. Fuck. “Well,” he mutters aloud to the empty space around him, “that explains that, I guess.”

Nothing could prepare him, however, to the sight of his mother lying dead next to him. Jeno has to cover his mouth to silence his horrified scream. Her head is bashed in, leaving a gaping hole where her ear once was, exposing her brain. And god, there’s so much blood. It covers her face, her neck, all her clothes, and it covers Jeno’s hands and chest as he cradles her body in his arms, sobbing. It’s awful to see his mother in such a state, and the even more awful thing is that now he needs to burn her body.

Jeno’s sobs overwhelm him as he sets up what’s to be her funeral pyre. There’s nothing more painful he could be forced to do, but this is the only way to keep her from reanimating and turning into a creep, and Jeno knows this is what his mother would want him to do. Even as he works, Jeno keeps an eye on her body – he has to make sure she doesn’t reanimate before he can burn her, so he needs to pick up his pace.

Once he’s satisfied with his handiwork, Jeno drags his mother’s body and lays it across the bed of branches and sticks he’s fabricated. The tears won’t stop coming as he pulls out his matchbook, lighting a bundle of kindling and sticking it in the base of his pile of sticks. With the way he’s set it up, the fire spreads quickly into a large burning mass.

To his horror, she wakes just before the fire consumes her completely. Jeno knows she won’t be strong enough to escape the flames, but even just seeing her burn alive, despite it being a necessary step, makes his insides go cold.

He takes a seat in front of the fire and watches his only hope for survival burn alive, his mother’s screams echoing out into the forest.  
  
  


“Ten, can you _please_ stay quiet, for, like, five seconds?” Doyoung begs as he tries to focus on assembling the switch for his handmade rabbit trap. It’s something that needs his full attention to get right, and Ten just will not stop blabbering on.

“I’m just trying to tell you about the finer points of fishing, it’s really not that distracting.”

Clenching his teeth, Doyoung sets the trap down at his feet and glares up at Ten, furious. “It is. I’m just trying to make sure we can eat tonight, and I can’t do that if you keep talking to me.” He sighs.

Ten rolls his eyes. “Who else would I talk to? Taeyong’s sleeping. I told him I would keep watch while he takes a nap.”

“Well,” Doyoung snarls, “if Taeyong is sleeping and you’re here talking my ear off, then who’s keeping watch?”

“Listen, Doyoung, no raiders will mess with us in broad daylight, and no creeps can attack us and win.” Ten seems confident in that, but Doyoung’s not so sure. In recent months, the raiders in their area have gotten much more reckless. They’ll attack camps without discretion nowadays, and Doyoung doesn’t want to become a victim just because Ten doesn’t want to keep watch for a few hours.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Doyoung grabs the crossbow sitting next to him and gets up to go to their watch perch. “If you won’t keep watch, then I will. I guess we aren’t eating tonight, and I’ll let you explain why to Taeyong.”

As he wades through the knee-deep foliage around their campsite, Doyoung groans over and over again. He’s exhausted. He kept watch all last night, he’s running on about an hour of sleep, and now he has to keep watch _again_? Doyoung loves Ten with all his heart –– they’ve all been best friends for years –– but he can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. Sometimes he wonders how Taeyong ever manages to put up with Ten and his flare for the dramatic, but Ten’s a sweet guy and has a good heart. It’s just hard for Doyoung to remember that sometimes.

Once he climbs up to their designated ‘watching’ tree branch, it only takes a minute for Doyoung to notice something weird. There’s a large fire burning a good distance away from them, and when he looks through his binoculars, Doyoung sees a single man sitting next to it, sitting completely still. Must be another survivor, but Doyoung has never met any solitary ones. They all teamed up early to either form communities or to set up large groups to raid other camps for supplies. Smaller groups like theirs are very rare nowadays, but a single person? Unheard of 

Doyoung weighs his options. The guy could just be waiting for a companion survivor to come back from keeping watch. Unfortunately, he could also be a trap set by a pack of raiders to ambush anyone that comes too close. It’s a hard decision, but Doyoung decides that it’s better to check on the guy than to leave him for dead.

When he gets back to camp, Doyoung starts packing up and gives Ten a pointed look to start doing the same. “Go wake Taeyong up. We’re going on a rescue mission.”

What with Ten being Ten, he stays firmly where he stands. “What in the ever-loving fuck does that mean, Doyoung?”

“It means that there’s a lone survivor sitting out in the woods a couple miles out from here, so we’re going to see if he needs help.” Without sparing a glance up at Ten, Doyoung gets to work on deconstructing his tent. “Plus we should really move on anyway. We’ve been here for almost four weeks with no incident. We shouldn’t push our luck.”

Doyoung’s finished up packing his own bag and has just started on Ten’s when Taeyong comes out of their tent, rubbing his eyes sleepily. “What’s this about a rescue mission?”

“We’re gonna go see if someone needs saving, for some reason,” Ten says, voice dripping with annoyance.

“Ten, be nice. I know you’re tired, but we all are.” Taeyong presses a gentle kiss to Ten’s jaw, which seems to soothe him tremendously. “We’re just going to see if someone needs our help, and if he doesn’t, then we’ll move on.”

With a soft sigh, Ten reaches a hand out to Doyoung, a peace offering, and he smiles softly when Doyoung takes it. “I’m sorry I’m being an ass. I know you just want the best for us. And you want to help whoever this guy is, too.”

“We’ll go check him out, and if something seems off, we’ll hightail it out of there. Five minutes tops,” Doyoung promises, moving on next to helping Taeyong pack his backpack. Only a few minutes pass before they’re all packed up and ready to go. Doyoung heaves his backpack over his shoulder as the others do the same, and they march off in the direction of the mystery survivor.

It’s the screaming that sets Doyoung on edge as they approach the area he’d seen the survivor, and it only gets louder as they get closer. What they find is… Well, it isn’t what they expect. There’s a boy curled up in a ball in front of a huge fire, which is abnormal enough on its own. What’s even _more_ abnormal is that the screaming comes from the flames. Oh, and the boy is covered in blood. Doyoung isn’t sure whether or not it’s his own.

Doyoung slowly takes steps towards the boy, as if he were approaching a timid animal. “Honey,” he whispers, and the boy jolts to his feet and pulls a knife from his belt. However, his quick and threatening reaction doesn’t disguise his wobbling or the enormous bleeding wound on his head. “You’re hurt.”

“Yes, I’m hurt, but I’ll still defend myself.” The boy’s voice wobbles as he speaks, and it’s clear his injury is messing with his normal functioning. He has a concussion at the very least. The last thing he needs is undue stress.

“We’re not here to hurt you, honey,” Taeyong reassures him. “Doyoung saw you from our watch post at our camp, and we wanted to make sure you were okay, which you’re not.” He gestures pointedly towards the boy’s head. “Would you let us help you?”

Pausing, the boy lets his head fall forward, starting to cry. “Please help me,” he chokes out between teary whimpers. “We- we were attacked by raiders last night. My mother did the best she could to protect me, but it wasn’t enough. There were too many of them. I don’t remember everything that happened, but when I woke up, she was dead.” He trips over his words, slurring them together, and Doyoung isn’t quite sure if it’s because of his sobs or the gash on his head. Which is still oozing blood and needs immediate attention. “I had to burn her. It was the only way to keep her from becoming like them.”

While Taeyong and Ten rush to comfort the boy, Doyoung searches through his overstuffed backpack for their first aid kit. Thus far, they’ve had the good fortune of never needing to open it, save for a band-aid here and there. Doyoung rummages through it for some gauze. He’s really not sure how to bandage a wound like this, but they have to at least get it to stop bleeding.

The boy comes over to Doyoung when beckons, and while he gently presses the gauze to the boy’s head, Doyoung asks, “What’s your name, honey?”

“Jeno.”

“Well, Jeno,” Ten chimes in, “if you need to join a group of survivors, we’d be more than happy to take you in.” As if he can read Doyoung’s mind, Ten adds, “We’ll take things slow for you until your head heals up, but after that, you have to keep up with us. We move fast, and you’ll do the same. You seem like you have the grit to handle it, but we’ll see how you do. Understood?”

Jeno perks up, his eyes going wide. “You guys would really do that for me?”

“Absolutely,” Taeyong answers, adamant.

Jeno seems… distracted, but thanks them profusely anyway. His eyes keep going back to the fire next to him, which is starting to peter out. Luckily, Jeno’s mother’s screaming stopped a few minutes ago, but Doyoung knows that Jeno can probably still hear it echoing through his head. _What a horrible thing to experience_ , Doyoung thinks. He looks to Ten and Taeyong, who wear matching pitying expressions.

It’s that moment that he makes a vow to protect Jeno, no matter what the cost. The kid has been through too much to suffer any more than he already has. Doyoung won’t let him feel pain like this ever again.

  
  


However, Doyoung’s promise is quickly put to the test.

They’re woken in the middle of the night by Ten sprinting into their new campsite about raiders on their way. “Oh, for _fuck’s sake_ -” They’d just set up their tents that evening at their new campsite, and raiders already feel the need to attack?

Then Doyoung remembers Jeno.

When he looks out of the tent and sees Jeno crying, arms wrapped tightly around himself, Doyoung is overcome with the urge to _protect_ . He grabs the axe he keeps next to his sleeping bag and gets into a fighting stance in front of the boy, almost snarling. _No matter what happens, protect Jeno_.

There’s seven raiders this time, and Doyoung curses under his breath. It’s too large a number to fight off by themselves, so it’s either turn over whatever they demand or die.

“You know what we’re here for,” one of the men in front says, “give us all your supplies.”

Just when Doyoung’s about to squeak in indignation, in refusal, an unfamiliar voice speaks up behind him. “Yuta, don’t you ever get tired of sneaking around and stealing from other survivors?”

What the fuck? Doyoung’s head whips around so fast it hurts his neck. Behind him and Jeno stands a complete stranger; he’s about as tall as Doyoung, and his sweet face does an excellent job of melting all of Doyoung’s fear away.

“Fuck you, Jungwoo, we need supplies,” the man (Yuta, he supposes) in front shouts.

Doyoung looks over to Ten and Taeyong, and they both look just as dumbfounded as he is. They’re definitely caught in the middle of something, and Doyoung hopes that _something_ won’t get them killed.

Jungwoo only rolls his eyes. “Then get them through the normal avenues.” He steps around Doyoung and into the center of the camp, trailed by another (tall, intimidating) stranger. “You know we left you all alive out of mercy the last time, Yuta. Killing one of your little friends was our warning to you, and it seems you haven’t heeded it. For your own safety, you should run away now, before we change our minds.” To Doyoung’s shock, Yuta and the rest of the raiders make a break for it, running out the way they came like the devil’s on their heels.

When the strangers both turn around, they’re wearing matching grins.

Ten’s the first to say it. “What the fuck just happened?" 

The tall one, the intimidating one, is much less intimidating when he smiles. “We have some history with Yuta and his group.  They tried to attack us way back when. Let’s just say we’re much better fighters, and there used to be eight of them.” Oh. Never mind about the ‘less intimidating’ thing. Doyoung scoots a little bit closer to Jeno at that. 

Noticing Doyoung’s trepidation, Jungwoo reaches a hand out to him as a gesture of reassurance. “We won’t hurt you, I swear on my life. We’re survivors too.” His voice is much sweeter when it isn’t threatening murder. “This is Yukhei, and I’m Jungwoo.”

Unexpectedly, Jeno pipes up, peeking around Doyoung’s shoulder. “You got rid of the raiders for us. Thank you.”

“All in a day’s work,” Jungwoo jokes, a bright smile on his face. “What are your names?”

“Doyoung.”

“Taeyong.”

“... Ten.”

“Jeno!”

“Excellent.” Dropping his backpack and stretching his arms out over his head, Yukhei turns to the four of them. “I have to say, though, you guys did steal our campsite. It’s the perfect spot for hunting, so we come back here a lot.”

Doyoung isn’t sure if it’s out of respect for Yukhei and Jungwoo’s dibs or if it’s out of fearful admiration of the two, but he says softly, “You guys can stay here with us, if you like.”

Ten whips his head around so fast that Doyoung’s sure his head spins with the force of it. “They can _what_?”

“Stay with us,” Taeyong answers before Doyoung gets the chance to. “They did us a favor, so we should share the campsite.”

“Yeah!,” Jeno says enthusiastically before going silent when Ten gives him a warning glare.

Flashing a warm smile, Jungwoo nods and lets his pack fall to the ground next to Yukhei’s. “Then it’s settled. Don’t worry, we’re good campmates. We keep to ourselves, but we’ll still contribute to keeping watch and hunting and stuff.”

Doyoung supposes this is for the best, anyway. Jungwoo and Yukhei _had_ saved their asses from a pack of raiders, so at least Doyoung knows he can trust the two of them not to kill them all. Well, for the most part, anyway. However, for all he knows, this might work out in their favor. It just might.

  
  


It doesn’t take long for Jeno’s elation over being saved to fade. He sits quietly around their campfire, mindlessly prodding at it with a large stick. His thoughts keep returning to his mother, screaming as she burned alive. Well, half-alive, but it was still his mother’s voice crying out in pain.

Yukhei seems to take notice of Jeno’s low mood because he takes a seat next to Jeno and bumps their shoulders together. “Why so glum, sugar plum?”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Jeno lowers his eyes down to his lap, whispering, “I can’t stop thinking about my mother.”

“That makes sense. You’ve had a long day, judging by what Ten told me.” With a kind smile, Yukhei pulls a peppermint from his pocket, placing it carefully in Jeno’s palm and coaxing his fingers shut around it. “Sometimes a little sugar can make all the difference. Let me know if you need someone to talk to, okay?”

Jeno’s eyes nearly pop out of his head in surprise and amazement. A part of him is scared to even eat the mint because he doesn’t want to waste something so precious.  “Whoa, where’d you get this?! I haven’t had candy since a couple weeks after the outbreak. People looted it so quickly…”

Yukhei winks. “I have my ways.”

He moves to stand back up, but Jeno grabs the sleeve of his shirt and looks up at him with teary eyes. “Please don’t leave me by myself, Yukhei. I don’t want to be alone.”

“Then we won’t leave you alone, simple as that,” Ten says as he approaches the fire. After he plops himself down on Jeno’s other side, Ten wraps an arm around Jeno’s shoulders with a bright smile. “Doyoung and I were talking earlier about how to work with three new people being added to our group, and we decided this will be good for us, to have more social connection. It’s just been the three of us for two whole years, and I think Doyoung is getting tired of Taeyong and my shit.” Ten lets out a loud, echoing laugh. “So, long story short, you’re stuck with us, kid.”

Poking his head out of his tent, Jungwoo, who has very clearly been eavesdropping, pipes in. “Does this mean we’re teaming up?”

Ten sighs. “Yes, nosy, we’re teaming up.”

“Oh, goody!”

“I don’t think you guys know how much this means to me.” Relief spreads through Jeno’s chest as he processes what Ten has told him. He won’t have to be alone after all. He’ll have others to help keep him alive. “My mother was the only hope I had for survival, and I was so worried I’d just been left to die by myself.”

Gently ruffling Jeno’s hair (avoiding the large, haphazardly-bandaged wound on the side of his head), Yukhei gives him a winning smile. “And now you have us. Losing your mother has to be the hardest thing you’ve ever had to deal with, but we’re here for you now, okay? We’ll help you through it." 

Only time will tell if Jeno can heal from this, but this is at least a start.

  
  


As the weeks go by, Doyoung notices their little group bonding. Ten, Yukhei, and Jeno have become inseparable during their time together. The elder two have helped Jeno immensely with the grieving process, and in turn, they see Jeno as a younger brother to mentor and take care of. It’s clear Jeno has helped Ten and Yukhei just as much as they’ve helped him. Taeyong and Jungwoo seem to be getting along really well, and Doyoung has befriended all three of the newcomers too. Well, to an extent, anyway. Opening up to them has been… a struggle for him; he’s never been very good at trusting new people.

“How did you and Taeyong and Ten meet each other?,” Jungwoo asks as he pokes at their fire one night, cooking some rabbits Doyoung had managed to trap that morning. “You know how Yukhei and I know each other, but you haven’t told me your story yet.”

Humming softly to acknowledge Jungwoo’s question, Doyoung considers if he even wants to share at all. Why doesn’t Jungwoo just go ask Taeyong or Ten? Doyoung’s sure either one of them would be more than happy to tell their story. At this point, Doyoung isn’t certain he wants to open up this much to Jungwoo - it’s an emotional story for him.

In the end, though, he caves. Jungwoo’s eager eyes are too bright for Doyoung to refuse. “It’s nothing, really. I worked at the same cafe as Ten and Taeyong through high school and uni, and once we noticed the outbreak, the only logical option was for the three of us to stick together. We gathered as much supplies as we could and hid at my apartment until the creeps came for us, then we made a run for it. And here we are.”

“What were you like back then?” Jungwoo focuses his full attention on Doyoung once the rabbits have finished cooking. “Let me into the mind of high-school-slash-uni aged Doyoung.”

Doyoung hesitates. “Why are you so curious?”

“You’re so closed off from Yukhei and me, but especially me.” Shit, Jungwoo’s noticed. “And I mean, I have a theory, at least. You trust Yukhei because of what he’s done for Jeno the last few weeks, but I haven’t proven myself to you yet. I get it if that’s the case, and I want to earn your trust, y’know? And I want to know more about you. That’s it, I promise.”

Left at a loss for words, Doyoung stays quiet. How had Jungwoo figured out his motives so quickly?

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

Tension hangs heavy between the two of them. Doyoung isn’t quite sure how to admit it, but Jungwoo’s hit the nail on the head. 

“... You are,” Doyoung says, “but can you really blame me? You two came out of the woods threatening murder. Ever since, I’ve tried to find reasons to trust you both, and only Yukhei has shown me reason to let him in. You, on the other hand, haven’t done… well, done much of anything.” Which is the truth. Jungwoo’s remained closed off from the rest of them this entire time. He makes conversation, interacts with them just enough to be polite, and spends the rest of his time in his tent or keeping watch. “Yukhei’s shown me that I can trust his judgment, so I trust you just enough to know that you won’t kill me in my sleep, but that’s the end of it.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Jungwoo looks down at his hands, wringing them in his lap. “You’ve read me just as well as I’ve read you.”

“I pay attention to everything.”

“I guess so.” Jungwoo laughs softly and lifts his head back up to look at Doyoung. “It’s just been hard for me, adjusting to having so many new people around. For years, even before the outbreak, it was always just the two of us. I never needed anyone else other than Yukhei. And now, relying on other people other than him is just throwing me off.”

 _That makes sense_ , Doyoung thinks. In the first week of cohabitating with the three newcomers, he wasn’t quite sure how to adjust to having to deal with people other than Ten and Taeyong. It’s been a process, for sure. “I know how you feel. To depend on people so completely and to know them better than you know yourself, that’s a special relationship. It throws off the dynamic, to have other people join in.” He pauses. “But that doesn’t make your relationship with Yukhei any less special. Taeyong, Ten, Jeno, and I could never change that bond you have.”

It seems as though something clicks inside Jungwoo’s head; Doyoung can see the change behind his eyes. “You’re- you’re right, aren’t you?” Jungwoo laughs loudly, a smile on his face. “And all this time I was so worried about my friendship with Yukhei changing. God, I feel so silly.” 

“It’s not silly, Jungwoo. It happens to all of us sometimes,” Doyoung explains, “and it happens even when we try not to let it affect us.”

“Thank you, Doyoung.” With a move Doyoung isn’t expecting at all, Jungwoo presses a soft kiss to Doyoung’s temple before standing up and calling to the others for dinner. It’ll be cold by now, what with them talking for so long, but the others will just have to deal with it.

Later that night, Doyoung finds that he can’t sleep. Every time he closes his eyes, his senses develop a mind of their own, and he feels Jungwoo’s lips against his skin over and over again. It’s less distressing and more annoying than anything else. Though it _is_ a little bit distressing, if Doyoung’s being honest with himself. He knows nothing at all about Jungwoo except for the things Yukhei has told him, which isn’t much. Not nearly enough for Doyoung to be this preoccupied with such a simple gesture.

Doyoung decides that if he’s going to be up anyway, he might as well go help keep watch. Shrugging on a jacket and his hiking boots and tossing a baseball bat over his shoulder, he heads out of his tent and into the woods.

Except he regrets his choice as soon as he gets to their watch post, because who could be keeping watch other than Jungwoo?

“Hey.” He doesn’t even look away from his binoculars when Doyoung reaches the large branch Jungwoo’s sitting on. “I saw you coming.”

Doyoung perches himself on the branch next to Jungwoo’s, fidgeting a bit because he can’t find a comfortable sitting position. “I should hope so if you’re keeping watch.”

Shrugging, Jungwoo lowers his binoculars from his face and flashes Doyoung a soft smile. “What brings you out here? Relieving me of my post?”

“I wanted some company, actually. I couldn’t sleep.” One lie and one truth; Doyoung considers it better than just flat-out lying, at least. In all honesty, Doyoung did come out here to relieve whoever was keeping watch for the night, but now he can’t bring himself to tell Jungwoo he can go back to camp.

“I can do that.” Jungwoo reaches his hand down to ruffle Doyoung’s hair before looking back through the binoculars. “There’s really nothing going on. I haven’t seen any creeps the whole time we’ve been here.”

Shrugging, Doyoung fixes his hair to put it back to its normal, neat state. “It’s because we’re so far from the city, I think.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve noticed. The further away from the the city we are, the fewer we see.”

“Huh.”

Doyoung leans back against the tree trunk, letting his eyes fall shut. He’s exhausted, but still he can’t relax. So he has to ask.

“Jungwoo, are you just an affectionate person?”

Pulling the binoculars away from his face, Jungwoo looks down at Doyoung to meet his eyes. “Yeah. I always have been. Does that bother you at all? I can stop, if you want." 

It’s another glimpse into Jungwoo’s head, something Doyoung isn’t used to. If at all possible, Doyoung wants to avoid the feeling that comes up in his chest every time he thinks about Jungwoo kissing his temple. However, he can’t bring himself to say anything other than “No, it doesn’t bother me. Just asking.”

“Good! Just wanted to check. You’re just so cute that I can’t help it.”

Their conversation dies out after that, fading to a comfortable silence, Jungwoo going back to keeping watch and Doyoung to resting his eyes.

Cute. Hm.  
  
  


Taeyong’s kept quiet for the past few weeks, and Ten isn’t quite sure why. Usually, he can practically read Taeyong’s mind (sometimes, Ten’s convinced he knows Taeyong better than Taeyong himself does), but this kind of quiet is nothing he’s ever seen out of Taeyong before.

“Babe?”

Taeyong looks up from his breakfast. “I know that voice. What’s bothering you?”

“I- well, I’m worried about you.”

Slow to move, Taeyong sets his food back on his plate, staring at Ten with an unreadable expression on his face.

“I mean,” Ten whispers, “you’ve been so reserved the last few weeks, and I don’t know what’s wrong. And if I don’t know what’s wrong, I can’t help fix it if it’s in my power to fix.”

Taeyong doesn’t say anything for a while, only staring down at his lap. When he breaks his silence, his voice is so quiet that Ten can barely hear it. “I… God, I’m so embarrassed to admit this. It’s something that only I can fix, and I didn’t want to burden you with it.” Looking back up at Ten, Taeyong reaches out and takes his hand. “I’m- well, I’m jealous of Yukhei and Jeno.”

Oh.

“Since the three of them came, you two have been so busy taking care of Jeno that you really don’t spend much time with me anymore except when we’re sleeping.” There’s no resentment in his voice, no sadness, no vitriol. Taeyong seems like he just wants to get this off his chest. “Like I said, this is my issue, not yours. I know they mean a lot to you, and I don’t want it to seem like I want you to stop spending time with them. I just need… more of you, really. Whenever you can.”

“Oh honey…” Ten opens his arms for Taeyong to crawl into, which he does. There’s nothing in the world that could compare to holding Taeyong like this. He gently rubs Taeyong’s back and presses a soft kiss to the crown of his head in silent apology. “I only wish you would have told me sooner.”

“I was embarrassed.” 

“No need to be,” Ten reassures him. “you deserve all the love and attention in the world, and I’m sorry I haven’t given that to you. I’ll do more for you, starting right now.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

  
  
  


Yukhei hates keeping watch. He does it, of course, for the good of the group, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Staring through binoculars for this long makes his eyes hurt, and sitting on a tree branch for hours on end is anything but comfortable. But it’s nights like these that make keeping watch seem like a good idea.

Out in the distance, he spots a massive group of creeps coming their way. “Well, shit.”

He climbs down from his tree as fast as he can and sprints towards camp, sticking his head in everyone’s tent to wake them. Everyone’s understandably groggy, but only until he tells them what’s going on.

“Creeps, coming our way. Dozens of them,” Yukhei explains, “and they’re moving quickly. I give us ten minutes until they get here, fifteen tops.”

Ten curses under his breath.  “Which leaves us no time to make a run for it.”

They all stare at each other for a moment in silence, as if all processing what needs to be done.

Whispering, Taeyong takes Ten’s hand in his own and asks, “We need to stay and fight all of them off, don’t we?”

“Hopefully,” Jungwoo says, “if we kill enough of them, the rest of them will see us as a threat and leave. Unfortunately, that’s only if we’re lucky. They might just be too stupid to recognize us as something dangerous.”

Yukhei knows the odds aren’t in their favor this time. No matter how many fights he and Jungwoo have won in the past, there’s never been this many opponents.

Jeno looks terrified out of his mind, and Yukhei’s reminded of the promise he made to Jeno a few days ago: _no matter what happens, we’ll keep you safe._

“Jeno, you can’t stay here.” Grabbing Jeno’s hand, Yukhei shushes the boy when he starts to protest. “No, you have to go. Ten and I promised to keep you safe, and the only way to do that is for you to make a run for it. It leaves you alone again, but it gives you a chance to survive.”

“Yukhei-”

“Go.” Ten’s just as adamant as Yukhei. “Pack your bag and go, there isn’t much time. Go to the south lookout post and hide there until one of us comes to get you. If two days pass, find another camp of survivors, okay?”

Looking quite shell-shocked, Jeno does as he’s told. He hurries through the motions of packing his things, and Yukhei can tell he’s fighting back tears.

And when he’s done, he throws his arms around Yukhei and Ten and starts to sob. “Please be safe, you guys, I’m begging you. You’re my family - I can’t lose you too!”

Yukhei holds the boy close for a moment before pulling away. Pulling a peppermint from his pocket, he slips it into Jeno’s palm and kisses the crown of his head. “Go, Jeno. Remember, wait for two days only, and then run.”

After he wipes away his tears, Jeno nods, as if to give himself strength, then runs out into the woods and vanishes. 

Doyoung looks like he’s about to cry too. “I hope we see him again.”

“We will.” Jungwoo wraps an arm around Doyoung’s shoulder and ruffles his hair, doing what he always does - soothing those around him the best he can. Ever since the outbreak, Yukhei’s admired Jungwoo because he never seems to get flustered or scared. He’s level-headed, Yukhei’s rock in stressful times. Like this time, for example, when a whole horde of creeps is coming their way.

“We don’t have much more time,” Yukhei says. “They’ll be here any minute now. Grab two weapons each, and fucking pray we make it out of this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there will be more dowoo in chapter 2 so stay tuned!


	2. the middle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just so you know i wrote the whole fight scene listening to gorilla by pentagon on repeat so you should listen to that while you read it

Something isn’t right - Taeyong and Ten can tell as soon as they come back to campus after break. One of their friends doesn’t even acknowledge them as they walk past, and another friend snaps her teeth at Ten when he goes to give her a hug. All throughout campus, there’s an unseen haze hanging over the public spaces, stifling the students and faculty into subdued slumps.

“We need to find Doyoung,” they say in unison. 

Ten takes Taeyong’s hand and drags him towards Doyoung’s dorm, almost running. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but we need to get out of here, and fast.” He dials Doyoung’s number over and over, but their friend doesn’t answer. “Ah, shit.” 

“Honey,” Taeyong says, panting as he starts to get winded, “what do we do if something’s wrong with Doyoung, too?”

Ten starts running. 

When they reach Doyoung’s dorm, they find his door unlocked. Ten’s relieved to find he’s only sleeping, and his phone didn’t wake him.

“Doyoung,” Taeyong shouts, “get up!”

Starting awake suddenly, Doyoung gasps before he realizes who’s woken him up. “Jesus, you guys, you scared the shit out of me! What the fuck is going on?!”

“Thank god, you’re still the same Doyoung. Pack your bags, honey bun,” Ten says, fishing a duffel bag from Doyoung’s closet and tossing it at him. “Something’s wrong with some of the students, and I’m worried for the worst.”

“What does that mean?”

Taeyong starts tossing essentials in a smaller bag, saying, “Yerim tried to bite Ten on our way here. She looked dead in the eyes, like the lights were on but no one was home.”

Sighing and rolling reluctantly out of bed, Doyoung pulls a shirt over his head and checks his phone. “Have you guys checked the news at all?” He pulls up the national news on his phone, scrolling through articles until he finds something relevant. “Says here that there’s been some sort of outbreak. Originated in the city center, and now it’s spreading back out to where we are.”

“Must be coming back to us because all the students are coming back to campus,” Taeyong muses.

“Either way, we need to hunker down or we need to get out of here.” Insistent, Ten grabs some of Doyoung’s activewear and tosses it into the duffel bag. “We can’t risk getting exposed to it any more than we already have.”

Once they’ve finished packing Doyoung’s essentials for him, they now have to decide as a group what their next move will be.

“I say we go back to Ten’s place.” Doyoung seems adamant that would be best. “You live by yourself, and I feel like the further we are from campus, the better.”

As they walk back to Ten’s apartment, they all notice something’s off. Campus has emptied out considerably, but the few stragglers left on the main quad eye them with a twisted sort of curiosity as they pass by. Once they reach the mouth of his street, Ten notices that some of the students are  _ following _ them. They keep their distance and move slowly, but Ten’s certain of it.

“Guys,” he says under his breath, “start walking faster. We’ve got company.”

They quicken their pace, not breathing a sigh of relief until they’re in Ten’s apartment and have locked the door behind them. 

“You guys are lucky I went grocery shopping this week. I think we’ll be here for a while,” Ten says, running a hand through his hair. 

Flopping down on the couch, Doyoung flips on the TV to the local news and turns the volume up.

‘ _ We now return to the breaking news story we’ve been following this morning _ ,’ says the news anchor on the television. ‘ _ Reports of a widespread epidemic are coming in from all major government agencies. Officials say that the disease in question causes confusion, loss of motor control, and in severe cases, loss of conscious thought and decaying of live flesh _ .’ 

“Jesus,” Taeyong mutters under his breath.

‘ _ Every authority we’ve heard from so far is saying the same thing: do not leave your home unless absolutely necessary _ .’

“I hate to break it to you all,” Doyoung exclaims, “but we’re apparently the new main characters of a badly-written zombie apocalypse novel!” 

Fuck, Doyoung might be right. The symptoms of the outbreak all match up with all the fictional zombie stories he can think of, and the students they saw on campus all seem to fit the bill too. 

Taeyong claps his hands together, resolved. “Well, then we don’t have any time to waste! We can barricade ourselves in here for a little while, but I don’t think we’ll have much time before they come for us. So we need a plan.” 

They try to come up with ideas, but after a half-hour of brainstorming, the only thing they have written down in Taeyong’s little notebook is ‘ _??? _ ’ and ‘ _ blow up the whole planet _ .’

“Well,” Doyoung says, “it was nice knowing you guys. We’re fucked.”

Standing up abruptly, Taeyong starts going around and rummaging through closets, like inspiration’s hit him. “Wait a second, Doyoung, don’t give up hope just yet. Honey, do you have your camping supplies here, or is it in storage?” 

“Most of it’s in storage a couple blocks away, but I have some here. Why?”

“Because,” Taeyong says,  frantically searching through and pulling out a couple mismatched tent poles from Ten’s front hall closet, “we’re thinking of long-term solutions for a currently short-term problem. I mean, technically a full-blown zombie apocalypse is a long-term problem, but our short-term problem is how we’ll survive until we come up with a viable long-term solution. So, with that in mind, we go camping.”

Looking too confused to formulate a response, Doyoung just says, “Camping?”

Taeyong nods. “Yes, camping. It makes the most sense. We get Ten’s camping stuff from storage and take it as far away from here as we can, the more isolated, the better. We get weapons, anything we can get our hands on. We pick a campsite and set up shop, and even if these things bother us, we always have a way out on all sides.”

Ten takes everything Taeyong’s said into consideration. It makes sense for them to leave the city. Finding a place with a lower population density will decrease their risk of running into any zombies, and food and water will be much easier to come by out in the country. “That’s a good idea, babe. I just have one question - how do we get to the storage unit without getting infected?”

“We should just go now,” Doyoung chimes in. “The outbreak can only spread further, so the sooner we go, the fewer zombies we’ll run into.”

Packing takes them almost no time at all. It’s mostly Taeyong shoving sensible things into Ten’s enormous camping backpack and Ten sneaking in a few sentimental items when Taeyong isn’t looking. With pocket knives drawn, they’re out the door no more than fifteen minutes later.

Ten knows that adapting to this new way of life will be difficult. Everything changes now. He looks over to his boyfriend, then his best friend, covering their left and right sides.

Well, at least one thing will stay the same.

  
  
  
  
  


They stand in a half-circle around their fire pit, backs to the flames. Doyoung looks to Taeyong his left, then to Ten on his right. If they fail today, god forbid, at least Doyoung knows that he’ll have his friends by his side until the end. 

“What’s the likelihood we survive this?” Taeyong’s voice trembles a bit, which is very out of character for him. He’s usually Doyoung and Ten’s pillar, sheltering them from any storm that blows their way, but this has him looking frantic.

Ten, heaving a heavy sigh, simply shakes his head. “Not likely, honey.”

Looking between the two of them, Taeyong says, “We all have to survive. I don’t think I could live without you. Either of you.”

“You won’t have to,” Doyoung insists, taking both of their hands and giving them a soft squeeze. “No matter what, we survive for each other.”

Turning to the three of them, Yukhei says, “We’ll all survive for each other. We’re a group now, and Jungwoo and I will protect you too.” 

Snarling in the distance alerts them to the creeps’ presence. All of them take fighting stances, they wait until the horde is just at the edge of their camp, and then they strike.

Doyoung’s the closest to the front of the horde, so he’s the first to move, and he comes out swinging. Hopped up on pure adrenaline, he takes a swipe with his axe at the creep closest to the front and chops its head clean off. 

Everything around him feels muffled as he slaughters the creeps around him one by one. Doyoung’s single-minded focus is on whatever one comes up to him next, and he polishes them off with less effort than he thought would be necessary. He quickly loses count of how many he’s killed. A couple dozen, he’d venture; they might even be nearing the last wave of them. But when he hears a scream off to his right, his rhythm falters, and he narrowly avoids being swiped by a creep right across the face. Doyoung doesn’t even know who the scream came from, but like hell he’s gonna let any one of them die.

When he looks, he sees Jungwoo, disarmed and lying on the ground, foot up on the chest of a creep snapping its teeth at him. Jungwoo’s screaming for help, scrambling for his weapon, but it’s been kicked away just out of his reach. 

Doyoung moves before he can even process what he’s doing. He’s mowing creeps down as he sprints towards Jungwoo, and just as the creep Jungwoo’s fighting off leans down to bite, Doyoung swings his bat and makes contact with its head with a resounding ‘crack.’ The thing goes flying, and Doyoung finishes the job by landing the blade of his axe in the center of the creep’s face (and he takes plenty of joy in the scream it lets out). 

Tears flowing down his face, Jungwoo is visibly shaken, and Doyoung yells to him, “Find somewhere to hide, okay? Just get out of here!” He won’t be of any use when he’s this frazzled, and Doyoung knows that could get Jungwoo killed if he stays.

Jungwoo does just that, sprinting from the camp as fast as his legs can carry him. 

When Doyoung turns back to the fray, he’s surprised to see that there really aren’t that many creeps left. A dozen, if that. It seems they’ve done the impossible. He quickly rejoins the other three, swinging his bat at the nearest creep with a laugh. 

When the last creep falls, the four of them look over the carnage in front of them. There must be fifty of them at least, probably more. Doyoung doesn’t know how they all survived, but survive they did. However, now that all the creeps are dead, his most pressing task at hand is to find-

Yukhei looks around frantically for his friend. “Doyoung, where the hell is Jungwoo?”

“Don’t worry,” Doyoung assures, “he’s alive and safe. I told him to go hide, so we just have to find him.”

Visibly relaxing, Yukhei breathes a sigh of relief. “Right. Which way did he go?”

They don’t have to go far before they find Jungwoo sitting on a low-hanging tree branch, arms wrapped tightly around the trunk, violently trembling and crying.

“Oh honey, you can come down from there. You’re safe now.” Yukhei shimmies himself up the trunk to the branch Jungwoo’s sitting on and plops himself down before folding his friend up into a tight hug. The two of them are up there for a long time, but Doyoung, Ten, and Taeyong use the time to discuss what the hell just happened.

First things first, though, they have to hug it out. 

“I can’t believe we all came out of that alive,” Taeyong says quietly, almost in awe.

Ten wraps an arm around each of their shoulders, giving them each a gentle shake, a winning grin on his face. “You guys were amazing out there. We truly are the dream team! And with Jungwoo and Yukhei, we’re unstoppable!”

Leaning in close to the two of them, Taeyong whispers, “Doyoung, what happened with Jungwoo anyway? He seems horribly shaken.”

“He almost got bit by a creep. Like, millimeters away. He must have dropped his weapon or something because his axe was too far for him to reach to fend off the creep that was attacking him. I just barely made it in time to kill the damn thing.”

Ten and Taeyong wear matching solemn expressions. “That could have been really, really bad. God, think of what that would have done to Yukhei,” Ten murmurs.

Yukhei finally inches back down the tree before helping Jungwoo down too. Jungwoo’s as pale as a sheet but his eyes are rimmed with red, and he’s trembling like a leaf. Doyoung wants to reach out and touch, to comfort him, but he knows this isn’t the time. Yukhei’s got a protective arm around Jungwoo’s shoulder as they walk back to camp to retrieve their stuff, Jungwoo tucked neatly into his side, and Doyoung’s sure that’s all Jungwoo needs and wants right now.

Once they’ve made the journey a few miles west to set up camp there, Ten and Taeyong volunteer to go get Jeno from where he’s hiding. “I’m sure he’s worried sick, and sunset isn’t more than a couple hours out.” Taeyong says, taking Ten’s hand. “We’ll be back soon.”

Doyoung spends an hour or so alone, prodding at the fire and unwinding from the fight. It’s nice to have this time to himself; he’s always preferred to decompress on his own anyway. It still really hasn’t hit him that they’d won such a large battle. Doyoung’s never seen that many creeps in a pack before. Something about it strikes him as extremely odd, and it’s incredibly unsettling to think that it could happen again.

He almost doesn’t hear Jungwoo coming out of Yukhei’s tent, wrapped snugly in a blanket, and walking over to sit next to Doyoung by the fire. “Hey,” he whispers, leaning over to rest his head on Doyoung’s shoulder.

With a gentle smile, Doyoung lays his head gently on top of Jungwoo’s. “Hey.”

“Thanks for saving my life today.”

“Sure thing.”

They sit together in silence, and eventually Jungwoo’s hand sneaks out from inside his blanket and takes Doyoung’s. Doyoung finds his heart rate picking up just a bit, but he chalks it up to lack of any intimate physical contact for this entire two years. He just hopes Jungwoo doesn’t notice. 

“Y’know,” Jungwoo says softly, “I thought I really was going to die today. I was too cocky, really, so when that creep disarmed me and I knew I didn’t stand much of a chance, I thought about just giving up. Yukhei and I have always been the strongest and the fastest and the best, so to make a silly misstep like I did felt like complete failure.

“But then there was you. You came to me so quickly, before even Yukhei could, and you got there just in time.” Jungwoo lifts his head to look at Doyoung, a sweet smile on his face. “I owe you so much.”

Giving Jungwoo’s hand a soft squeeze, the intimacy of the gesture not lost on him, Doyoung smiles back. “Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t owe me anything. I only did what I would have done for any one of you. Don’t let it get to your head,” he teases.

Jungwoo’s laugh tinkles like a wind chime, and when his laughter fades out, they’re even closer than they were before. Doyoung doesn’t know where the notion comes from, but he’s hit hard with the sudden impulse to  _ kiss _ .  _ ‘No,’ _ he thinks to himself,  _ ‘I couldn’t do that. Jungwoo is-’ _

Before he has time to properly fight off the urge, Jungwoo’s leaning in and gently pressing their lips together. It’s feather light and dry, nothing beyond a sweet gesture, but Doyoung swears his heart will burst out of his chest if he doesn’t pull away immediately. So he does.

There’s a dark blush spreading across Jungwoo’s cheeks when Doyoung breaks the kiss. “Oh no, I’ve done it this time, haven’t I?”

“What do you mean?” Doyoung is doing his best to fight off the urge to just pass out.

Jungwoo sighs, scooting himself away from Doyoung to put a little space between them. “You didn’t want me to kiss you, did you?”

“I-”

“I’m sorry, Doyoung. Yukhei will tell you - I’m just horrible at reading social cues. He always tells me-”

Before Jungwoo can go any further, Doyoung interrupts. “Jungwoo, you just caught me off guard. I kind of do want to kiss you, but I’m just…” He pauses, thinking of all the times he’d jumped too quickly into the smallest inkling of feelings and gotten burned because of it. “I’m not there yet. Is that okay?”

“Of course that’s okay!” Jungwoo gives Doyoung’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You can interpret that as me thanking you for today, and we’ll leave it at that. Sound good to you?”

With a soft smile, Doyoung nods and rests his head back on top of Jungwoo’s, pointedly ignoring the tangled mess of emotion twisting in his gut. There’s a time for him to deal with whatever feelings he has for Jungwoo and how strong they’re becoming, and this isn’t it.

  
  
  
  
  


It really hasn’t been very long since they told Jeno to hide, but Ten can’t help but worry for his safety anyway.

“What if he was attacked by creeps on his way out? Or worse, raiders? What if-”

“Babe,” Taeyong soothes, running a gentle hand through Ten’s hair, “I’m positive that he’s ok. He’s probably worried sick about you and the rest of us, but other than that, he’s unscathed.”

Ten sighs softly. “But how can you be so sure?”

A soft smile creeping onto his face, Taeyong presses a kiss to the other’s cheek. “Because,” he whispers, “our Jeno is a smart kid. He’s resourceful, and he’s careful. I’m sure he’s just fine.”

“You’re right.”

“As I usually am,” Taeyong says, bumping his hip against Ten’s. 

Just a moment after the lookout post comes into view, Jeno’s there in a second, scrambling down the tree and sprinting over towards them. “Oh my god, you’re okay! I was so worried about you!” Wrapping them both in a bone-crushing hug, Jeno asks, “Are the others okay too?”

Ten presses a soft kiss to the crown of Jeno’s head, smiling. “Yes, honey, everyone else is okay too.”

They walk back to camp together in comfortable silence, hand in hand, with Jeno walking between them. Ten’s relieved that Jeno’s safe and sound, and now he can finally relax.

Or, well, maybe not. 

The smell hits them first before anything comes into view, and as they get closer to the upcoming clearing, it dawns on them what kind of horrific thing they’re looking at. 

“Oh shit,” Taeyong whispers, and he slaps a hand over Jeno’s eyes, but it’s too late. He’s already seen. “Oh shit, this is  _ really _ bad.”

Ten looks petrified by what he’s seeing. “W-we need to get back to camp and tell the others.”

They set off running towards camp, doing their best to not look behind them.

  
  
  
  
  


Doyoung’s volunteered to go keep watch for a while, and it’s not long after when Jungwoo comes back to Yukhei’s tent.

“Yukhei,” he declares, “I have a problem.”

Raising a brow, Yukhei asks, “And what might that be, Jungwoo?”

Jungwoo’s cheeks flush a bright pink, and all of a sudden, he seems much more timid than before. He mumbles something Yukhei can’t make out, closing his eyes tight, as if bracing for the worst.

“Come again?”

“I, uh, have feelings for Doyoung, I think,” Jungwoo whispers, his hands twisting together to dispel his nerves. “And I don’t think he has feelings for me.”

Sighing, Yukhei opens his arms for Jungwoo to crawl into, which Jungwoo does. “Oh honey, why do you do this to yourself?”

It’s a question Yukhei knows Jungwoo doesn’t have the answer to; Yukhei doesn’t expect an answer either. Jungwoo doesn’t say anything in response, just curls up in Yukhei’s arms, trembling slightly. Yukhei’s shirt is soon damp with tears, and he rubs Jungwoo’s back until Jungwoo’s breath evens out and he falls asleep, head against his best friend’s chest.

Where do they go from here? If Jungwoo has feelings for Doyoung and Doyoung doesn’t return them, Jungwoo will be absolutely devastated. He takes those kind of things really hard - always has. Even after years of the same thing happening over and over with boy after boy, Jungwoo still can’t seem to avoid getting his heart broken. Now that they’ve formed such a close-knit unit with Doyoung and his friends, things could get complicated.

All they can do is hope that Jungwoo can get over the way he feels and move on. For everyone’s sake.

Just when Yukhei thinks he’s about to fall asleep next to Jungwoo, he hears their names being called from the edge of camp.  _ Good lord _ , he thinks to himself,  _ if that’s Doyoung and there’s another pack of creeps or raiders coming, I will lose my goddamn mind _ . Yukhei gently nudges Jungwoo awake before crawling out of the tent. 

Luckily, Doyoung isn’t the one waiting for him, so at least there isn’t anything threatening coming their way. Ten, Taeyong, and Jeno are the ones waiting for him, and the three of them wear matching pale faces and terrified expressions. Not to mention they’re all out of breath.

“Oh my god, what happened to you guys?”

Before they get a change to answer, Doyoung’s running into camp, out of breath as well. “Is everything okay? I saw you guys running here, but I didn’t see anything following you.” Jungwoo comes out of Yukhei’s tent as Doyoung’s speaking, wearing a very confused expression.

Taeyong’s the first one to say anything - the other two don’t look like they can form a sentence right now. “Something’s not right. We have to pack up and get out of here.”

“What do you mean?” Jungwoo’s voice is still laced with sleepiness, but the stress level in camp right now has probably woken him up for the most part. He rests his head on Yukhei’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around his friend’s waist.

“We found something. In the woods,” Ten pants out. “A mound of dead creeps, at least twenty of them, probably more. Which, in and of itself, wouldn’t be that alarming, but none of them that we could see showed any signs of being killed. They were just… dead. And it smelled just like rotting flesh, which is something I’ve never noticed with any creep before. They seemed like they’d been there for a while.”

Yukhei’s stomach turns. 

“Maybe this is a sign that creeps can die on their own? Maybe they have a limited lifespan?” Jungwoo, ever the forced optimist.

“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Ten says, “but something about this doesn’t seem right. It unnerves me that there were so many of them in one place, all in the same condition.”

Yukhei knows that their only solution right now is to get the hell out of this area. “We can problem solve and brainstorm later. Taeyong’s right - we need to move quickly.”

  
  
  
  
  


With Ten and Taeyong still packed up from before, it doesn’t take long for Yukhei, Jungwoo, and Doyoung to pack their bags and clear out their campsite. The sun’s almost set, less than ideal for travelling, but what choice do they have?

They spend the first part of their hike in silence. Doyoung’s paired himself up with Jeno for the trip, and he keeps a close eye on the other as they hike, especially on rockier terrain.

“Doyoung,” Jeno asks softly, “how do you know Taeyong and Ten?”   


As much as he doesn’t like divulging his past to other people, he trusts Jeno, and the others don’t seem to be listening, so Doyoung humors him. “We worked at the same coffee shop while we were at uni. We didn’t get along very well at first, but they became my best - and really my only - friends. I did a lot of running in high school, ran competitively, but I never really seemed to connect with my teammates. Or anyone else, for that matter.” Doyoung sighs. He doesn’t like remembering those days; looking back makes him feel that painful loneliness all over again. “But then I met Taeyong and Ten. It took a long time for us to get on, but when we did, everything just… clicked. Even though by that time they were already dating, they always went out of their way to include me. I never felt like the third wheel. I still don’t to this day.”

Doyoung wants to tell Jeno more about his two best friends, but the other conversations in the group have died out, and he’s not about to share more details about his personal life with Yukhei and Jungwoo.  _ Especially _ Jungwoo. 

There’s no moon that night. They hike for what seems like hours in pure darkness, barely able to make out the form of whoever’s in front of them. It makes it that much more obvious when the light of a campfire starts to glow off in the distance. 

Coming to a stop, Doyoung pulls everyone into a circle to figure out their next step. “We have to decide how we want to move forward.”

“Is potentially finding another group of survivors worth the risk of running into raiders?” Doyoung can feel Ten’s concern radiating off him in waves as he speaks. The last time they took this same risk, they ran into a group of raiders so large that they barely escaped with their lives. 

Chiming in, Yukhei says, “You guys have us now. You three are strong as a unit, but Jungwoo and I are too, and Jeno’s strong in his own right. Raiders don’t usually form groups of more than ten - too much infighting - and a number that large is extremely rare. We can take any raiders we come across, i’m sure of it.”

Doyoung knows Jungwoo will side with Yukhei, so he doesn’t even bother asking his opinion. “Jeno, how do you feel about approaching?”

“I feel good about it,” Jeno says softly, “as long as I know you guys are fighting with me if anything goes wrong.”

“I think we should go for it.” The most pragmatic of them all, Taeyong gives his approval. “I think finding another group of survivors will be really helpful for us, especially if they have any information about the mound of creeps we found today. It’s a risk worth taking.”

With a decision reached, they approach the camp of strangers as loudly as they can. The group of them is bound to have someone keeping watch, so as they get closer to the camp, Yukhei shouts, “We’re survivors looking for information, and we hope you can help us! We won’t do you any harm.”

They get no response. “Well,” Doyoung says, “I guess their watch-keeper not attacking us is a good sign.”

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you.” 

Doyoung whips around to see where the unfamiliar voice came from, but before he can even turn around to look at his attacker, the raider swings her bat and lands a blow to the side of his head.   
  
Everything goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this update was kind of short, but thank you all for your patience! there's more yet to come~


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